Strikers close much of LA shipping port for a third day

Striking clerical workers and longshoremen in Los Angeles have shut down much of the nation’s two largest container ports.

Seven of the eight terminals at the Port of Los Angeles are closed Thursday, according to Phillip Sanfield, a spokesman for the city- owned facility. At the adjacent Port of Long Beach, three of six are closed, according to its website.

The shutdown comes after the crucial holiday cargo rush, which ended this month, Sanfield said. The two ports are expected to handle almost a third of the nation’s total container shipments, the real-estate services firm Colliers International said in August. The workers walked out Tuesday amid an impasse in contract talks.

Los Angeles has 10 vessels at berth waiting to be serviced and others anchored nearby, according to Sanfield.

“We rarely have ships waiting, and more are due every day,” he said in a telephone interview.

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa sent a letter yesterday to the International Longshore & Warehouse Union, which also represents clerical workers, and the Los Angeles/Long Beach Harbor Employers Association, which negotiates for shippers, urging them to reach an agreement.

“The City of Los Angeles needs both of you to get back to the bargaining table this week, to work with a mediator, and to hammer out a settlement before further harm is done to our local economy,” Villaraigosa said. “There is no time to waste.”

Offer Rejected

The employers said in an update on the strike yesterday that clerical workers rejected a proposed increase in compensation to more than $190,000 in wages and benefits.

“The real purpose behind this claim is to promote ‘featherbedding’ -- requiring employers to call in temporary employees and hire new permanent employees even when there is no work to perform,” according to their statement.

The 800 office and clerical employees have been working without a contract for 30 months, according to a statement on the union website.

Salaries aren’t the issue, the union said. More than 51 positions have been lost in recent years because of outsourcing to other locations including Costa Rica and Dallas, according to the statement.

The shippers say no clerical jobs have been sent overseas or elsewhere. The employers say they have offered protection against such actions.